{"id":507680,"date":"2026-07-03T09:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507680\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T09:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:39:11","slug":"auckland-uber-driver-jaspreet-singh-sentenced-for-indecently-assaulting-passenger-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507680\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland Uber driver Jaspreet Singh sentenced for indecently assaulting passenger"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a crying young woman climbed into the back of an Uber late at night, the driver insisted she move into the front seat.<\/p>\n

She didn’t think much of it, even when she heard the doors lock and he asked for a hug.<\/p>\n

It was only when he touched her leg, and her phone and other belongings remained unreachable in the back seat, that the 22-year-old realised she was in trouble.<\/p>\n

The young woman was indecently assaulted by driver Jaspreet Singh multiple times that night.<\/p>\n

At his sentencing in the Auckland District Court today, the victim said she still blamed herself for getting into the front seat.<\/p>\n

“I know, rationally, that no seat in that car made what happened acceptable,” she said. “But that is what this kind of violation does to a person.”<\/p>\n

That night was not the end of the victim’s ordeal.<\/p>\n

She had to go through a trial in 2025 that resulted in a hung jury, that she said betrayed her “faith in people”.<\/p>\n

She persevered, however, and after a retrial in May a jury found Singh, now aged 33, guilty on four counts of indecent assault.<\/p>\n

In court today, Judge Brooke Gibson laid out the facts of what happened on the night of July 14, 2024.<\/p>\n

The woman got into the back of the Uber about 1.20am in Grey Lynn, Auckland, to take what the judge said should have been a short trip to Mount Eden.<\/p>\n

She was upset when she got into the vehicle but, he said, that was not Singh’s “concern”.<\/p>\n

Singh invited the woman into the front passenger seat and “unfortunately” she obliged, leaving some of her belongings in the back.<\/p>\n

He placed his hand on her thigh, moving it higher up her lap.<\/p>\n

The victim made it clear she didn’t want it to happen, Judge Gibson stated, but Singh insisted on a kiss and a hug and trying to get her to agree to drive elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The victim felt trapped as Singh again hugged and kissed her and put his hands near her bottom.<\/p>\n

When they eventually reached her destination, and they got out of the car, Singh hugged the woman again and this time put his hand on her bottom and grabbed her.<\/p>\n

Once he let her go, the victim walked away, the judge said.<\/p>\n

A car with the word ‘devil’ in the numberplate<\/p>\n

This morning in court, she read out her victim impact statement.<\/p>\n

She told the court that two weeks before the Uber trip, she had just finished four years of therapy to process past sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

Before the Uber trip, she had finally felt healed.<\/p>\n

“I was okay, I was happy, I was in a good place,” she said. “That was taken from me.”<\/p>\n

She said she had never been more scared than she was in that Uber.<\/p>\n

Fearing that she would be raped or murdered, she began to think of ways to leave evidence for police if it “came to that”.<\/p>\n

“Break a nail, pull out hair … wipe blood somewhere.”<\/p>\n

She recalled that Singh’s number plate had the word ‘devil’ in it.<\/p>\n

“Your Honour, I’m not religious, but during my moments in Mr Singh’s car I found myself praying to any and all gods that a car with the word ‘DEVIL’ in the number plate wouldn’t be the reason I didn’t get to tell my boyfriend I loved him again.”<\/p>\n

The week after the incident, she was running late to an exam and had no choice but to take an Uber.<\/p>\n

However, the resulting stress caused a panic attack so severe that she had to walk out in the middle of the test – and failed.<\/p>\n

At one of her first shifts back at work, a man came into the office that looked like Singh and she again had a panic attack, so intense she said she thought she was having a heart attack.<\/p>\n

She struggles with eating, sleeping and had to go back to therapy and increase her anxiety medication.<\/p>\n

She said the first trial was one of the most traumatic experiences of her life and the hung jury harmed her in ways she didn’t expect.<\/p>\n

Believing that if you told the truth, society would protect you, betrayed her “faith in people”.<\/p>\n

She was scared that Singh knew where she lived.<\/p>\n

That fear had only grown, particularly with the idea of what he might do once he was sentenced, she said.<\/p>\n

‘Gutted’<\/p>\n

The woman, who is now 24, spoke to NZME this week ahead of Singh’s sentencing.<\/p>\n

In that conversation, she said a ride that should have taken only four minutes, took 20 and felt like 40.<\/p>\n

She said she complied with what Singh wanted in the car, because she felt it could be “dangerous” if she tried to make a scene.<\/p>\n

When she retold how Singh kept touching her thigh in the car, moving higher up her leg each time, she became emotional.<\/p>\n

“Sorry, it’s been so long, you’d think I’d be able to say it without crying,” she told NZME.<\/p>\n

She gave evidence in the first trial and said she was cross-examined for about two days, which was a “pretty gnarly process”.<\/p>\n

When the officer in charge told her about the non-verdict over the phone, she was “gutted”, but immediately said she wanted to go for a retrial.<\/p>\n

Her history of sexual abuse was part of the reason she “so immediately” wanted a second shot, to stand up for herself in a way she felt she hadn’t in the past.<\/p>\n

Singh had multiple opportunities to tell the truth, but did not take them, which delayed her ability to heal.<\/p>\n

When she got the text that he was found guilty on four counts, she told NZME she was in shock.<\/p>\n

“I think I just started sobbing and laughing at the same time.”<\/p>\n

She also remembered Singh telling her that he only worked late night, weekend shifts – that worried her as she thought about the women, some of whom intoxicated, that would have ended up in his vehicle.<\/p>\n

That was another reason she pursued justice.<\/p>\n

A ‘real risk’ of deportation<\/p>\n

In court, Singh was supported by about 10 of his family members, including his wife and baby, in the public gallery.<\/p>\n

His lawyer Andy Wei said the majority of Singh’s family lived in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

On that note, he attempted to get Singh discharged without conviction as Singh would face a “real risk” of being deported if convicted.<\/p>\n

Singh’s wife’s visa was attached to her husband’s, so she would also have to leave the country if he was deported, the court heard.<\/p>\n

On top of that, Wei claimed that India did not allow dual citizenship, and the baby, born in NZ, would have to live in India without the protection of Indian citizenship.<\/p>\n

“The deportation and the family harm would be permanent,” Wei argued.<\/p>\n

Crown lawyer Mohammed Chiraagh said the consequences of deportation for Singh would not outweigh the gravity of the offending.<\/p>\n

In deciding whether he would convict Singh, Judge Gibson spoke of the effects the indecent assaults had on the victim.<\/p>\n

“Clearly what you did to her will be with her in terms of psychological damage for some time well into the future.”<\/p>\n

He also spoke to a Corrections and psychological report before the court highlighting that Singh had a clean record, history of working hard in this country and was assessed as at a low risk of reoffending.<\/p>\n

“I can accept that this was … a one-off.”<\/p>\n

As Singh’s wife’s visa was tied to her husband’s, the judge said there was no real “risk” their family would be separated if he was convicted.<\/p>\n

On the balance of those reasons, he declined the application, convicting him on the four charges.<\/p>\n

He ordered Singh to pay $10,000 in emotional harm to the victim and sentenced him to five months’ home detention.<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Open Justice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a crying young woman climbed into the back of an Uber late at night, the driver insisted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-507680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}